Tag Archives: hilton head monthly

(Hilton Head Monthly, March 2011) Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings do automagically what trained technicians with expensive equipment can spend days trying to perfect in the studio: Capture the rich, sultry sounds of the classic soul era defined by names like James Brown and Aretha Franklin — and they do it with, get this, real instruments. Born in Augusta, Ga., but raised in Brooklyn, Jones struggled with an early music career — which included a brief side job as a prison guard at Rikers Island — before her sultry stage presence and her band’s retro sound found their audience. Since catching on nationwide, the band has been everywhere, releasing four albums, opening for Prince last month at Madison Square Garden and placing a song in the opening credits to the 2009 George Clooney film “Up in the Air.” Jones spoke from her mother’s house in Queens.

Q: Do you ever get back to Georgia?
A: I just bought a home in South Carolina, right over from Augusta. I wanted to get my mother out of these projects. I got my sister, whose spouse recently passed away. I was like, “Look, come on down here, move with Mom. I bought a house. You take care of Mom while I’m back on the road.” Hopefully, maybe another year or two, I can get a place of my own somewhere. But right now, I finally got my mother out of the projects.

Q: What was it like opening for Prince?A: We did that song “A Love Bizarre.” He had me do a duet with him and everything; he called in the horn section. He had Binky (Griptite, the Dap-Kings’ guitarist) play his guitar. Prince don’t let nobody play his guitar! At the after party, Mos Def got on stage. He wanted to actually rap while Prince was playing. I don’t know anything about rap. When he came on stage, I thought he wanted to dance. I was like, “You played Chuck Berry in that Cadillac movie: Do that Chuck Berry guitar dance!” And he did it. And then I made him do the boogaloo with me. It was cool.

(READ THE REST [or click the image above] because I’ve got betta things to do than paste it here for you.)

excerpt:
The ship’s five cabins and an interior designed by Terence Disdale should be a convenient place to hide from the spotlight: McCaw has been a lightning rod for criticism from newspaper employees who opposed her editorial interference and labor practices. At the height of a staff insurrection in 2006, McCaw was spotted cruising the French Riveria with fiancé (and co-publisher) Arthur von Wiesenberger. While her newsroom workers took issue with McCaw expressing her staunch animal-rights views in the newspaper, the ship’s crew doesn’t seem to have the same concern. Once, during a cruise off the Turkish coast, she sent crewmembers to swim ashore to free a tied-up donkey.

A totally awesome xmas present you can buy for the beer drinker in your life, available by special secret pre-order today to devoted readers of this blog (many of whom don’t live anywhere near Brooklyn), the curation of which has consumed my life for the past month!

Consult The Experts: Gator Aid

So you’re in town from Ohio, quietly enjoying your week on the beach and devouring page after page of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” when you glance up to see a GIANT GATOR emerging from the ocean. This, most likely, was not in the brochure. Luckily, Clemson associate professor Richard Blob can help.

Q. Do you think a reality show about alligator wranglers would be a hit?A. You see some of these videos where people are sticking their head and their arms in there. It’s like, “C’mon! No!” I would not advocate a reality show about alligator wranglers. That’s something that should not be encouraged in any way. Maybe like one episode of “Dirty Jobs” might be enough.READ THE REST BEFORE YOU ARE EATEN TO DEATH

What bars do you want… in the Brokelyn Beer Book 2.0!?

(Brokelyn, 10/26) How do we know Brooklyn loves beer? It’s not from digging through your trash, collecting cans (which… we’ll tell you about soon). It’s because when we unveiled the Brokelyn Beer Book back in February, the colorful coupon packets for 25 beers at 25 Brooklyn bars (for $25) sold out in a matter of hours. For those who swooped-in early, it’s been six months of beers on the book. For those who missed out, it’s been one long wait for this moment: the announcement of the second Brokelyn Beer Book! This time, as we prepare this next awesome deal for you, we’re doing it a little differently. We’re bowing to the democratizing power of beer, ignorant of economic and editorial status, and asking: What bars do you want?

And, you know, just running for a state assembly seat in California…: (Monrovia Patch) Tim Donnelly, Republican candidate for California’s 59th State Assembly District, which includes Sierra Madre, spoke Wednesday at a Tea Party rally in Barstow ahead of the Nov. 2 election in which he hopes to best Democratic challenger and former Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Darcel Woods. Donnelley is also facing Tony Tyler, small business owner and candidate for the Libertarian Party as well as Robert Gosney of the American Independent Party.

Wait, that last one wasn’t me! But this guy has been wreaking havoc on my google news alert of late. If he wins, I expect even more confused emails than usual.

I don’t normally post my Hilton Head Monthly stuff here, but I figured I’d make an exception for this interview with Mayor Tom Peeples, who announced this year he’s not running for reelection after serving four terms, making him by far the longest-serving mayor the town has seen in its short history. I covered the guy for four years at The Island Packet, talked to him countless times by phone, usually at least a few times a week, visited his office, and maybe even saw him tipsy a time or two at various island weekend events (odds are I was equally tipsy at such events), so I even ventured a first-person lede here.

Mayor looks back, forward

(Hilton Head Monthly 4/30/2010) The single angriest moment I ever witnessed from Mayor Tom Peeples during four years covering the town happened in a meeting on the contentious debate over limiting the airport’s future runway length in 2007 The meeting drew one of the largest crowds in town history into a standing-room-only council chambers as the public both for and against expansion gathered.
The debate wore on, the crowd grew restive and some skeptics shot jeers and boos at council members on the dais. With a sharp whack of the gavel, Peeples brought the room to silence, lifted his voice to its full-bodied boom and told the crowd they could either quiet down or get out. About half the room picked up and left.

The single most emotional moment I witnessed out of Peeples also came at the same meeting, a few minutes later. With the public comment portion of the hearing closed, council members were left to state their positions on the measure that would prevent the airport from expanding the runway without first getting town permission. As Peeples explained that the town was taking the controversial measure because it defended the core ideals of the island’s founders, his voice began to crack and waver, and it appeared, to those in the audience at least, that a few tears lined his eyes.

“It guarantees that you, the citizens of Hilton Head Island, can come to a public process just like this if there is a need to discuss lengthening the runway,” Peeples told the crowd. “Obviously the fact that so many people are here must (mean) that’s a good idea.”

That broad swing of emotions — transforming from forceful arbiter to spokesman for personal passion — is indicative of the balance Peeples struck over his 15 years as town mayor. Never too much a dyed-in-the-wool politician, Peeples positioned himself as a pragmatist and consensus builder, but wasn’t afraid to let people know when something went against what he saw as the values of Hilton Head that first drew him to the island and local politics many years ago.
Peeples made a surprise announcement in April that he won’t run for reelection this November after serving four terms. It opens up room for an exciting election season, and one that will usher in a new era of leadership for the town that has known the same mayor for more than half its lifetime.

READ THE REST because it’s got all the municipal government fun you can stand!